HENRY FIELDING. 1707–1754.

All nature wears one universal grin.

Tom Thumb the Great. Act i. Sc. 1.

Petition me no petitions, sir, to-day;
Let other hours be set apart for business.
To-day it is our pleasure to be drunk ;
And this our queen shall be as drunk as we.

Act i. Sc. 2.

When I'm not thank'd at all, I'm thank'd enough. I've done my duty, and I 've done no more.

Thy modesty's a candle to thy merit.

Acti Sc. 3.

Act i. Sc. 3.

To sun myself in Huncamunca's eyes.

Acti. Sc. 3.

Lo, when two dogs are fighting in the streets,
With a third dog one of the two dogs meets,
With angry teeth he bites him to the bone,
And this dog smarts for what that dog has done.1
Act i. Sc. 6.

1 Thus when a barber and a collier fight,

The barber beats the luckless collier - white; The dusty collier heaves his ponderous sack, And, big with vengeance, beats the barber - black. In comes the brick-dust man, with grime o'erspread, And beats the collier and the barber red; Black, red, and white, in various clouds are tost, And in the dust they raise the combatants are lost. Christ. Smart, From The Trip to Cambridge. Campbell's Specimens, Vol. vi. p. 185.

Doddridge. Cotton.

315

Fielding continued.]

Oh! the roast beef of Old England,

And oh the old English roast beef.

The Roast Beef of Old England.

PHILIP DODDRIDGE.

1702-1751.

Live while you live, the epicure would say,
And seize the pleasures of the present day;
Live while you live, the sacred preacher cries,
And give to God each moment as it flies.
Lord, in my views let both united be;
I live in pleasure when I live to thee.

Epigram on his Family Arms.1

NATHANIEL COTTON. 1707–1788.

If solid happiness we prize,
Within our breast this jewel lies;

And they are fools who roam :

The world has nothing to bestow;

From our own selves our joys must flow,

Thus hand in hand through life we 'll go ;

Its checker'd paths of joy and woe
With cautious steps we 'll tread.

1 Dum vivimus vivamus.

Ibid. St. 13.

From Ortin's Life of Doddridge.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 1706-1790.

God helps them that help themselves.'

Poor Richard.

Dost thou love life, then do not squander time,

for that is the stuff life is made of.

Ibid.

Plough deep while sluggards sleep.

Ibid.

Never leave that till to-morrow which you can

He has paid dear, very dear, for his whistle.

The Whistle. (Nov. 1719.)

There never was a good war or a bad peace.2 Letter to Quincy, Sept. 11, 1773.

Here Skugg

Lies snug,

As a bug

In a rug.

From a Letter to Miss Georgiana Shipley.

1 Help thyself, and God will help thee.

Herbert, Jacula Prudentum.

Aide toi et le Ciel t'aidera.

Fontaine, Book vi. Fable 18.

? It hath been said that an unjust peace is to be

preferred before a just war. - S. Butler, Speeches in the Rump Parliament. Butler's Remains.

SAMUEL JOHNSON. 1709 – 1784.

Let observation with extensive view

Survey mankind from China to Peru.1

Vanity of Human Wishes. Line 1. There mark what ills the scholar's life assail, Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail.

Line 159.

He left the name at which the world grew pale, To point a moral, or adorn a tale.

Line 221.

Hides from himself his state, and shuns to know That life protracted is protracted woe.

Line 257.

An age that melts in unperceiv'd decay,
And glides in modest innocence away.

Line 293.

Superfluous lags the veteran on the stage.

Line 308.

Fears of the brave, and follies of the wise! From Marlborough's eyes the streams of dotage

flow,

And Swift expires, a driveller and a show.

Line 316.

Must helpless man, in ignorance sedate,
Roll darkling down the torrent of his fate?

Line 345.

For patience, sovereign o'er transmuted ill.

1 All human race, from China to Peru,

Line 362.

Pleasure, howe'er disguis'd by art, pursue. Rev. T. Warton, The Universal Love of Pleasure.

Of all the griefs that harass the distrest,
Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest.

London. Line 166.

This mournful truth is everywhere confess'd, Slow rises worth by poverty depress'd.

Line 176.

Each change of many-colour'd life he drew,
Exhausted worlds and then imagin'd new.

Prologue on the Opening of Drury Lane Theatre. And panting Time toil'd after him in vain.

Ibid.

For we that live to please must please to live.

Catch, then, O catch the transient hour;
Improve each moment as it flies;

Ibid.

Life's a short summer

man a flower

He dies-alas! how soon he dies!

Winter

Officious, innocent, sincere ;

An Ode.

Of every friendless name the friend.
Verses on Robert Levet. Stanza 2.

In misery's darkest cavern known,
His useful care was ever nigh1
Where hopeless anguish pour'd his groan,
And lonely want retired to die.

Stanza 5.

And sure the eternal Master found
His single talent well employ'd.

Stanza 7.

1 Var. His ready help was always nigh.